The Legacy of Toni Morrison Continues to Inspire Conversations About Identity, History, and Cultural Preservation
The late critically acclaimed author and icon Toni Morrison once said her writing rejects the white gaze. In an 2013 interview with the Cornell Chronicle, the Pulitzer Prize winning author intentionally rejected the perceived notions of the white audience when reading books written by Black people. ““I thought, ‘I can’t do that.’ she said, ‘What is the world like if he’s not there? And the freedom, the open world that appears is stunning. … There was this free space opened up by refusing to respond every minute to … somebody else’s gaze. So that flavored a great deal of what I was writing. It still does.’”
Understanding the White Gaze and Double Consciousness
Morrison rose to prominence in the 1970s and became one of the defining literary voices of African American literature. Much of her work posits the very sentiment of the aforementioned statement: rejection of the white gaze. In 2026, perhaps the same question should be asked: what does Blackness look like outside the white gaze. The “white gaze” largely has been tied to the teachings of sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, particularly his concept of “double consciousness” – essentially it is the keen self awareness of one’s blackness and perceived limited social mobility in the presence of individuals who operate from sole places of privilege. Understanding the potential point of polarity that may arise if in public discourse.
Digital Platforms Preserve Black Scholarship
Fortunately, in the world of archiving experiences as well as information becoming more readily available than never, much of the traditional scholars surrounding Black experiences have migrated to digital spaces, often appearing as 20-30 second soundbites on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. With that, much of their principles and teachings and so white gaze and double consciousness is not something new – it’s one of the many perpetual points of generational trauma.
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DEI Rollbacks and the Erasure of Black Narratives
What is also happening now is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is under attack and poses some very dangerous consequences for future generations of color. With education, government, and business spaces essentially performing an ethnic media cleansing, various media outlets and documented figures are being erased from the narrative.
The Stakes for Future Generations
Historically, within public spaces, Black people were conditioned to believe they have limited to no social mobility and the only way that mobility increased depended on one’s proximity to whiteness. If this attack continues, Blackness would become a victim to a different kind of slavery – institutional censorship.
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